Polymers and (macro)Molecular Materials, Soft Matter, and Complex Fluids
Welcome
Welcome to the homepage of the Osujilab at Penn. If you are looking for information about the NRT on Autonomous Experimentation for Soft Materials Research, please see the page here.
Soft materials and complex fluids are ubiquitous in natural and synthetic systems. Our interests lie in understanding and controlling the structure and dynamics of such soft matter. Through studies focused on interfacial phenomena, directed self-assembly, rheology and microfluidics, we advance structure-property relationships in colloidal suspensions, liquid crystals, surfactants, polymers and biological materials. We employ microscopy (optical, electron, atomic force), scattering (visible light, x-ray), rheology and other methods, along with some basic polymer and small molecule synthesis. Many of the systems we study have interesting applications as functional materials. We are particularly motivated by applications in clean water and clean energy generation, analytical separations, nanomaterials synthesis and engineering better complex fluids in many forms.
Recent Publications
Structural complexity driven by liquid–liquid crystal phase separation of smectics
Christopher A. Browne, Yuma Morimitsu, Na Kyung Kim, Manesh Gopinadhan, Eric B. Sirota, Ozcan Altintas, Kazem V. Edmond, Paul A. Heiney, Chinedum O. Osuji
Soft Matter 2025 21(34), 6751-6761.
DOI: 10.1039/D5SM00487J
